freshclam.conf(5)

NAME

freshclam.conf - Configuration file for Clam AntiVirus database update tool

DESCRIPTION

The file freshclam.conf configures the Clam AntiVirus Database Updater, freshclam(1).

FILE FORMAT
The file consists of comments and options with arguments. Each line which starts with a hash (#) symbol is ignored by the parser. Options and arguments are case sensitive and of the form Option Argument. The arguments are of the following types:

BOOL
    Boolean value (yes/no or true/false or 1/0).

STRING
    String without blank characters.

SIZE
    Size in bytes. You can use 'M' or 'm' modifiers for megabytes and 'K' or 'k' for kilobytes.

NUMBER
    Unsigned integer.

DIRECTIVES

When an option is not used (hashed or doesn't exist in the configuration file) freshclam takes a default action.

Example
    If this option is set freshclam will not run.

DatabaseOwner STRING
    When started by root, drop privileges to a specified user.
    Default:

AllowSupplementaryGroups BOOL
    Initialize supplementary group access (freshclam must be started by root).
    Default: disabled

DatabaseDirectory STRING
    Path to a directory containing database files.
    Default: /var/db/clamav

Checks NUMBER
    Number of database checks per day.
    Default: 12

UpdateLogFile STRING
    Enable logging to a specified file. Highly recommended.
    Default: disabled.

LogFileMaxSize SIZE
    Limit the size of the log file. The logger will be automatically disabled if the file is greater than SIZE. Value of 0 disables the limit.
    Default: 1M

LogSyslog BOOL
    Enable logging to Syslog. May be used in combination with UpdateLogFile.
    Default: disabled.

LogFacility STRING
    Specify the type of syslog messages - please refer to 'man syslog' for facility names.
    Default: LOG_LOCAL6

PidFile STRING
    This option allows you to save the process identifier of the daemon to a file specified in the argument.
    Default: disabled

LogVerbose BOOL
    Enable verbose logging.
    Default: disabled

DNSDatabaseInfo STRING
    This directive enables database and software version checks through DNS TXT records.
    Default: enabled, pointing to current.cvd.clamav.net

DatabaseMirror STRING
    Server name where database updates are downloaded from. In order to download the database from the closest mirror you should configure freshclam to use db.xy.clamav.net where xy represents your country code. If this option is given multiple times, freshclam(1) tries them in the order given. It's strongly recommended that you use db.xy.clamav.net as the first mirror and database.clamav.net as the second.
    Default: database.clamav.net

MaxAttempts NUMBER
    How many attempts (per mirror) to make before giving up.
    Default: 3 (per mirror)

ScriptedUpdates BOOL
    With this option you can control scripted updates. It's highly recommended to keep it enabled.
    Default: enabled

TestDatabases BOOL
    With this option enabled, freshclam will attempt to load new databases into memory to make sure they are properly handled by libclamav before replacing the old ones.
    Default: enabled

CompressLocalDatabase BOOL
    By default freshclam will keep the local databases (.cld) uncompressed to make their handling faster. With this option you can enable the compression; the change will take effect with the next database update.
    Default: no

DatabaseCustomURL STR
    With this option you can provide custom sources (http:// or file://) for database files. This option can be used multiple times.
    Default: no custom URLs

PrivateMirror STR
    This option allows you to easily point freshclam to private mirrors. If PrivateMirror is set, freshclam does not attempt to use DNS to determine whether its databases are out-of-date, instead it will use the If-Modified-Since request or directly check the headers of the remote database files. For each database, freshclam first attempts to download the CLD file. If that fails, it tries to download the CVD file. This option overrides DatabaseMirror, DNSDatabaseInfo and ScriptedUpdates. It can be used multiple times to provide fall-back mirrors.
    Default: disabled

HTTPProxyServer STR, HTTPProxyPort NUMBER
    Use given proxy server and TCP port for database downloads. HTTPProxyPort defaults to 8080.

HTTPProxyUsername STR,HTTPProxyPassword STRING
    Proxy usage is authenticated through given username and password.
    Default: no proxy authentication

HTTPUserAgent STRING
    If your servers are behind a firewall/proxy which applies User-Agent filtering, you can use this option to force the use of a different User-Agent header.
    Default: clamav/version_number

LocalIPAddress IP
    Use IP as client address for downloading databases. Useful for multi homed systems.
    Default: Use OS'es default outgoing IP address.

NotifyClamd STRING
    Notify a running clamd(8) to reload its database after a download has occurred. The path for clamd.conf file must be provided.
    Default: The default is to not notify clamd. See clamd.conf(5)'s option SelfCheck for how clamd(8) handles database updates in this case.

OnUpdateExecute STRING
    Execute this command after the database has been successfully updated.
    Default: disabled

OnOutdatedExecute STRING
    Execute this command when freshclam reports outdated version. In the command string %v will be replaced by the new version number.
    Default: disabled

OnErrorExecute STRING
    Execute this command after a database update has failed.
    Default: disabled

ConnectTimeout NUMBER
    Timeout in seconds when connecting to database server.
    Default: 10

ReceiveTimeout NUMBER
    Timeout in seconds when reading from database server.
    Default: 30

SubmitDetectionStats STRING
    When enabled freshclam will submit statistics to the ClamAV Project about the latest virus detections in your environment. The ClamAV maintainers will then use this data to determine what types of malware are the most detected in the field and in what geographic area they are. Freshclam will connect to clamd in order to get the recent statistics. The path for clamd.conf file must be provided.
    Default: disabled

DetectionStatsCountry STRING
    Country of origin of malware/detection statistics (for statistical purposes only). The statistics collector at ClamAV.net will look up your IP address to determine the geographical origin of the malware reported by your installation. If this installation is mainly used to scan data which comes from a different location, please enable this option and enter a two-letter code (see http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/) of the country of origin.
    Default: disabled

DetectionStatsHostID STRING
    This option enables support for our "Personal Statistics" service. When this option is enabled, the information on malware detected by your clamd installation is made available to you through our website. To get your HostID, log on http://www.stats.clamav.net and add a new host to your host list. Once you have the HostID, uncomment this option and paste the HostID here. As soon as your freshclam starts submitting information to our stats collecting service, you will be able to view the statistics of this clamd installation by logging into http://www.stats.clamav.net with the same credentials you used to generate the HostID. For more information refer to: http://www.clamav.net/support/faq/faq-cctts/. This feature requires SubmitDetectionStats to be enabled.
    Default: disabled

SafeBrowsing BOOL
    This option enables support for Google Safe Browsing. When activated for the first time, freshclam will download a new database file (safebrowsing.cvd) which will be automatically loaded by clamd and clamscan during the next reload, provided that the heuristic phishing detection is turned on. This database includes information about websites that may be phishing sites or possible sources of malware. When using this option, it's mandatory to run freshclam at least every 30 minutes. Freshclam uses the ClamAV's mirror infrastructure to distribute the database and its updates but all the contents are provided under Google's terms of use. See http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=70015 and http://safebrowsing.clamav.net for more information.
    Default: disabled

Bytecode BOOL
    This option enables downloading of bytecode.cvd, which includes additional detection mechanisms and improvements to the ClamAV engine.
    Default: enabled

FILES

/etc/freshclam.conf

AUTHOR

Thomas Lamy <thomas.lamy@netwake.de>, Tomasz Kojm <tkojm@clamav.net>

SEE ALSO

freshclam(1), clamd.conf(5), clamd(8), clamscan(1)